Dad sleeps as Simon sprints to the yellow jersey

Mansfield cyclist Simon Gerrans has followed up yesterday's stage win on the Tour de France by claiming the race lead and coveted yellow jersey - but a few late nights watching the event on television took its toll on his father Allan, who told us this morning he slept through the whole thing.

"We weren't expecting that sort of result last night and I fell asleep watching the tv and then went to bed and got up just to see what the results were and just couldn't believe to see that the team had won and Simon (had) the yellow jersey," Allan said.

Gerran's Orica Greenedge team won the time trial in Nice by less than a second which was just enough to give the 33-year-old the race lead by the slenderest of margins.

Allan said he has since spoken to his son who was naturally "very excited".

"By the time I spoke to him last night it was nine or 10 o'clock, he said they hadn't even had dinner yet... but obviously on a high and very excited and looking forward to wearing the jersey for a couple of days if he can," he said.

Allan said he couldn't go back to sleep after hearing the news.

"I don't know how anyone could," he said.

Click on the audio player to hear more of our interview with Allan Gerrans.